Gieseke talks about solving issues, saving money

January 18, 2013

NEW ULM - An Independence Party candidate for the Minnesota House District 19A special election next month said policy-makers, business people, farmers and educators who can adapt to rapidly changing models are most likely to succeed by solving issues and saving money.

If elected, Tim Gieseke said he would examine policy issues with a shared governance means test and would focus on education, environment, health, transportation issues and creating new jobs.

A farmer, author and founder of a company that develops processes, products and procedures to integrate production resource management with natural resources from the field to ecosystem level, Gieseke created a public company, Ag Resource Strategies, LLC.

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Tim Gieseke is the Independence Party Candidate in 19A.

Over the past year, he worked on projects integrating government, non-profit organizations, industry values, research and writing for national efforts including the United Nations Foundation's Solution From the Land and 25 x 25 (creating 25 percent of U.S. energy from renewable resources by 2025).

"You can't solve specific issues just by throwing lots of money at them," Gieseke said Thursday. "State government has a lot more staff and payroll than it did five years ago, but there are still lots of issues to solve."

Regarding tax reform, Gieseke said tax-free, online purchase loopholes need to be looked at to create a fair playing field for local retailers.

"That needs to be balanced with property tax reform," he added.

Gieseke said agriculture practitioners can take the lead as long as they are given policy tools.

"I think most farmers and other people in agriculture agree we have more erratic weather patterns now," he said. "Growing seasons are moving north and temperatures are rising. We won't change that anytime soon, but those that can adapt to it will do the best."

Gieseke said higher education in particular is trending towards more online tools.

"Massive open online courses (MOOCs) enable the rich, poor, young and old to take web courses from places they never could before. Free, online courses are growing at a faster rate than Facebook did," Gieseke added. "All big universities need to be aware of it or brick-and-mortar schools could go the way Best Buy did when Amazon came along."

He is a former Agriculture Program Director at The Minnesota Project, a public, non-profit organization and executive director of the Carver Soil & Water Conservation District .

Gieseke's book, "EcoCommerce 101," deals with sustainability development issues from business, policy and governance perspectives. He leads discussions on how to envision and implement market components like supply and demand, price and value signals.

Gieseke has an master's degree in environmental sciences and a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry, from Minnesota State University, Mankato.